Bosnian to Tongan: separate a question’s function from the participants in its answer
A Bosnian yes-or-no question is different from a request for a location
Columbia’s Bosnian lesson demonstrates li within questions such as Vidiš li ga? This asks whether an event holds: does the listener see the person? A question requesting a place instead expects a location, not simply an affirmative or negative answer.
The Peace Corps Tongan lessons give Ko fē e falemālōlō? for asking where the toilet is. This is a documented location question rather than a pattern formed by translating Bosnian li independently. A source question’s purpose must be identified before its small grammatical components are assigned target equivalents.
A reply locating something is not a statement identifying the speaker
The Tongan direction dialogue answers a location request with Ko ē while pointing out the place. Elsewhere the lessons give Ko au as an appropriate response when somebody calls the speaker’s name. The two expressions belong to different exchanges despite their similar beginnings.
For an original Bosnian conversation in which a visitor calls to find a guide and then asks where a building is, preserve both conversational steps. The first response can acknowledge the person being addressed; the second supplies a location. Reusing one short target response for both can make the guide identify themselves when a place is requested, or point at a place when acknowledging their own name.
Bosnian we does not settle whether the listener is included
Columbia’s personal-pronoun table gives mi for first-person plural. That source form alone does not distinguish a speaker and listener acting together from a speaker describing their own group to an outsider.
POLLEX records a Tongan inclusive dual form under kita/ua and an exclusive dual under kimaua. Its slash notation analyzes the recorded form; it is not a direction to insert a slash into ordinary writing. These entries establish two independent choices: the group contains two people, and the listener is either included or excluded.
In a Bosnian answer meaning that we two will show you the way, the listener may be the visitor receiving directions rather than one of the two guides. In an invitation meaning that you and I will go together, the listener belongs to the pair. The same source mi can occur in both situations, so the target choice must follow the actual membership.
A group suggestion should remain distinct from somebody else’s plan
The Peace Corps lessons illustrate Tau kamata as let us begin in a meeting exchange. It proposes a shared action. This is different from a report that the speaker’s separate team is beginning its own work.
For a Bosnian announcement shifting from describing the organizers’ preparations to inviting everyone to start, determine where the addressee joins the activity. Do not preserve one undifferentiated we throughout merely because the source pronoun can cover both groups. Equally, a location answer should not acquire an inclusive invitation to travel simply because the participants are standing together. Tongan questions, acknowledgments, and group expressions need to retain the distinct actions being performed in the Bosnian exchange.
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